1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a technology of automatically extracting parameters representing a posture of installing an imaging device such as a TV camera, etc., and more particularly to a technology of automatically extracting the installing posture parameters of the imaging device used for a monitoring system.
2. Related Background Arts
Over the recent years, a variety of monitoring systems each using an imaging device typified by a TV camera have been proposed for the purpose of measuring a traffic density, specifying a traveling vehicle, measuring a speed of the traveling vehicle on the road or the railway, or specifying an object entering a predetermined site.
For example what is known as this type of monitoring system may be a monitoring system for may be a monitoring system for specifying an individual traveling vehicle by automatically recognizing characters on a number plate attached to the vehicle from an image taken by the imaging device provided, above the road, and a monitoring system for specifying a traveling speed of the vehicle by extracting a characteristic element of the traveling vehicle from the image taken by the imaging device provided above the road, and measuring a moving distance of the characteristic element within a predetermined period of time.